Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield

Rainbow Six is a true benchmark for the tactical action genre.
However Red Storm seemed disappointingly keen to continue milking
the first two titles in the series with absolutely no shame, with
mission pack after mission pack slowly diluting our enthusiasm for
the fine originals. Now, at last, Raven Shield - the sequel to
Rogue Spear - sets out to offer fans of the genre what they've been
gagging for all these years.

Who need stories when you've got guns?

Rainbow Six
games have never been great at storytelling, and Raven Shield is no
exception. It attempts to set up the tale of a neo-fascist plot to
take over the world or something like that, but it's just a weak
frame on which to build a string of missions that have little or no
significance to the story. This we aren't too concerned about; we
don't play Rainbow Six for the complex, emotional plot or exquisite
character development and wouldn't have expected it now. Where the
games did need work, though, was in the visuals department, as Red
Storm's proprietary engine simply wasn't cutting it against the
competition any more.

Thankfully, the employment of next-generation Unreal technology has
lent the series a much-needed facelift; the whole game from the
environments to the weapon and character models feels a lot more
solid than before. The use of rag doll animation on the characters
means that downed tangos and soldiers alike crumple to the floor
and roll down stairs with convincing aplomb, and when at rest limbs
will dangle lifelessly over ledges, all of which enforces a deeper
realism that hasn't been present in Rainbow Six titles gone by.

In fact, atmospherically the game has come along leaps and bounds.
The lavish textural and structural detail that has been expended on
each of the game's maps is impressive, and coupled with the
brooding incidental score and ambient sound effects, the game
rarely fails to grip.

An assault on a cartel mansion, for example, became wonderfully
theatrical as we wormed our way down to a huge, plush lounge area.
Muffled opera could be made out ahead, and as we got close and
swung the door open we were greeted by a grand piano behind which a
terrorist was taking cover, along with a couple of friends on the
other side of the room. The radio warnings started up at the same
time as the terrorists shouting for backup, and as the firearms
began to ring out the piano sang random notes with bullet strikes
all to the operatic strains, amounting to an inspiring moment of
gameplay. There are little moments like this scattered throughout
the game, and it's worth playing through all the missions just to
savour them alone.

Tricky

Oddly though there isn't a learning curve as such. You're
pretty much thrown in at the deep end, and newcomers to the series
are going to be surprised at just how challenging the game can be,
particularly with the lack of a mid-mission save feature.
Personally, we can do without one, but some are going to see this
as a major flaw when they have to restart some of the trickier,
more daunting missions over and over.

There is also a startling lack of variety in the scenarios; you'll
usually find yourself rescuing hostages, neutralising all the
terrorists, rescuing hostages and neutralising all the
terrorists, or in one infuriatingly hard mission that
recalls the villa mission from Rogue Spear, entering a house and
planting bugs on a phone and laptop and exiting again without being
discovered. Granted, this is what counter-terrorism teams usually
do, but more variety from the "enter building, shoot people, exit
building" dynamic would have been welcome.

The implementation of the AI in both your teammates and enemies is
again hit or miss, as seems to be the standard for Rainbow Six
games. Soldiers still have door navigation issues when a large
group of them are trying to fit through, but seem to find their way
around each map fairly well when there isn't anything lying around
to obstruct them. They are generally adept at covering your back
though, and only very rarely lapse into insisting that they all
pile through a door and get shot one after another. Enemies seem to
exhibit a curious mix of deviousness and cunning; defending
themselves effectively before becoming completely oblivious to your
presence again - despite the stream of unsilenced assault rifle
bullets streaking into the wall mere inches from their faces.

Gunplay

Multiplayer is easily as absorbing as the
single player campaign, probably more so, and just about manages to
urinate on all contenders from a great height because it's just so
damn compulsive. This is what Raven Shield is going to live on for
the next couple of years we should imagine, and that's no bad
thing.

Nothing can really beat the thrill of the team-based survival
matches, but there is also all-against-all survival, a
Counter-Strike-style escort-the-VIP (or in this case, pilot) game
type, bomb activation/defusing, and hostage-rescue modes to play
with, alongside co-operative versions of the single player
missions.

The network code is pretty solid when it's not telling you that you
have an invalid CD key (Red Storm, sort this out now), and
the community has thus far proved to be a polite, co-operative
bunch, actually interested in playing the game properly, instead of
getting some kind of perverse thrill from filling their buddies
with lead [unlike Ghost Recon on Xbox Live, then -grumpy Ed].

Counter-progressive

What is really surprising about Raven Shield though is how
little the game has changed in the last five years. Here we have a
game that manages to achieve some truly inspirational moments, yet
singularly fails to build upon the standard it established. Even
the planning stages before each mission remain just as impenetrable
as ever and barely changed; you're probably better off just loading
the pre-packaged plans as they tend to work well enough. If you're
really unhappy with the way a mission pans out, you can always take
the time to tweak the tangled mess of waypoints and go-codes, but
starting from scratch seems... well, masochistic.

There are some functional improvements, certainly; namely the
contextual menu with which to communicate rudimentary orders to
your team - to open doors, flashbang suspicious rooms or clear them
out, etc - and the replacement of the HUD-based planning map with
visual, first-person waypoint indicators was a good move. Also of
note is the inclusion of "fluid movement"; toggling this and moving
the mouse up, down, left or right allows you to precisely raise or
lower your body position, ideal for popping up Time Crisis-style
and slaughtering firmly entrenched opposition without getting
'headshotted'. Sadly, though, there's rarely ever a convenient
moment to actually use this feature properly, apart from the
tutorial.

Overall, there just isn't much evidence to suggest Raven Shield is
pushing the tactical action genre forward. We suppose the question
is 'should we care?' Probably not. Frankly, Raven Shield is an
absolutely tremendous game, and there is no denying it that. We
haven't played a more atmospheric single or multiplayer tactical
action game since SWAT3, and despite its shortcomings there is
still nothing that comes close to rivalling it for sheer
breathe-down-your neck tension. It may not drive the genre in a new
direction, but it has almost everything you could expect from it,
whether you're an anal-retentive gun nut or just an FPS fan up for
a weighty challenge. See you in a few months for the first mission
pack.

Games featured in this article

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